#2569 - Bill Thompson

Episode of The Joe Rogan Experience · October 21, 2026 · 2 h 53 min

Joe Rogan and Spartan Forge founder Bill Thompson discuss bow hunting, performing under pressure, military survival training, Jungian dreams, mastery, online bots and AI's future.

Summary

Joe Rogan hosted Bill Thompson, a retired Army chief warrant officer and founder of hunting-app company Spartan Forge, for a wide-ranging conversation. After opening talk about the new Tesla Roadster and cars, Thompson described high-risk military driving courses, and the two discussed archery, with Rogan arguing that shooting problems stem from pressure rather than technique and that experiencing more big moments builds resilience. Thompson described his shot routine using the military acronym STAB and recounted killing a 12-year-old public-land buck in Pennsylvania.

Thompson argued that hunting taps evolutionary wiring and serves as a coming-of-age rite young men lack, described Spartan Forge's scent and thermal modeling feature, and recounted hallucinating during an advanced SERE course. He explained his belief, drawn from Carl Jung, that dreams carry evolutionary wisdom, recounting a dream he connected to a legal fight; Rogan questioned how such claims could be studied beyond anecdote. They discussed nicotine, ibogaine, kratom, Stephen King's writing under the influence, and a hockey goalie's description of an unconscious flow state.

Later segments covered mastery and the beginner's mind, Kaizen in mixed martial arts, Justin Gaethje's durability, Thompson's intelligence work in Iraq, and politics, including Thompson's mixed assessment of Donald Trump and his view that candidates should face long-form interviews. Both men described social-media bot networks as dangerous propaganda tools, with Rogan saying unauthenticated posting should be illegal. Rogan predicted AI would eliminate many jobs within ten years, while Thompson offered an optimistic view of deflation, a revival of handmade goods and locally run AI, which Rogan called rose-colored.

Chapters

0:14
Cars and the Tesla Roadster
Rogan and Thompson react to the new Tesla Roadster demo and discuss cars they love.
8:19
Military driving courses
Thompson describes high-risk officer driving training and the counterintuitive techniques of fast driving.
13:49
Archery and pressure
Rogan argues accuracy problems in archery stem from pressure and that more big moments build composure.
20:48
Hunting, evolution and shot routines
Thompson explains warming up on does, hunting's evolutionary wiring, his STAB routine, and a monarch buck.
30:16
Resilience and the serenity prayer
Thompson credits AA meetings in childhood for his ability to ignore what he cannot control, and the pair discuss resilience and difficulty.
40:18
Spartan Forge and scent modeling
Thompson describes his app's goal of getting hunters outdoors and its thermal scent-modeling feature, and Rogan reflects on hunting's complexity.
47:41
Coming of age and SERE training
Thompson argues for coming-of-age rites and recounts evasion and detention phases of survival training, including hallucinations.
58:22
Perception, Jung and dreams
They discuss aliens and perception before Thompson explains his Jungian view of dreams and a dream about a legal fight.
1:24:25
Drugs, nicotine and kratom
Thompson discusses mushrooms, ibogaine and nicotine, and Rogan warns about kratom and harm-reduction programs.
Linked moment · 1:35:56Skip to 1:35:56 using a listen link in the info box.
1:35:56
Mastery, Kaizen and MMA
They discuss losing interest after mastery, Kaizen, the evolution of MMA and Justin Gaethje's upset win.
2:07:09
Flow states and meaningful work
A hockey goalie's unconscious state, the stages of competence, Thompson's intelligence work and his grandmother's advice are discussed.
2:24:55
Politics, bots and AI's future
They discuss long-form interviews with politicians, Trump, social-media bots and propaganda, and how AI will transform society.

Key points

What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.

Joe Rogan
Rogan argues that a command shot can be as accurate as a surprise release if the archer understands and manages pressure.
“maybe you can be just as accurate if not more accurate using a command shot but you need to understand how your mind is working”
Listen from 13:49 · Performance under pressure
Joe Rogan
Rogan suggests the best way to handle pressure is to accumulate more high-pressure experiences.
“the strategy might be just have a bunch of big moments have more big moments in your life”
Listen from 15:36 · Performance under pressure
Bill Thompson
Thompson says he kills a few does each season before pursuing bucks to avoid buck fever.
“I always make sure I try to kill two or three doe before I really start zeroing in on going for a buck”
Listen from 20:48 · Bow hunting
Joe Rogan
Rogan argues that mob behavior at protests reflects an evolved war response to being part of a group in conflict.
“that's war that's your body's ability to recognize that it's you with a bunch of other people that are supposed to be on your side”
Listen from 22:54
Bill Thompson
Thompson credits the serenity prayer, heard at his mother's AA meetings, for his habit of not worrying about what he cannot affect.
“that's one of my super powers is if I can't affect something I don't worry about it”
Listen from 30:16
Bill Thompson
Thompson says Spartan Forge is designed to minimize phone interaction so hunters focus on the woods.
“if I had my way about it, they wouldn't pick the phone up once they're in the woods”
Listen from 41:13 · Spartan Forge
Bill Thompson
Thompson argues society has lost coming-of-age rites for young men and that hunting could serve that role.
“we've kind of lost coming of age rights or we've got like you know in native american tribes”
Listen from 46:46 · Rites of passage
Bill Thompson
Thompson says documenting his dreams convinced him they convey meaningful messages with an evolutionary function.
“it just became astonishing to me that my dreams were trying to tell me things”
Listen from 1:02:42 · Dream analysis in Jungian psychology
Joe Rogan
Rogan questions whether Jung's claims about dreams can be studied beyond individual anecdote.
“I don't understand how you'd be able to study this unless it's all completely anecdotal from an individual”
Listen from 1:13:25 · Dream analysis in Jungian psychology
Bill Thompson
Thompson recounts a veteran who quit his antidepressants and improved after ibogaine treatment in South America.
“he went down there and did that. And when he got back, he threw it all away. And he was better afterwards”
Listen from 1:25:34 · Ibogaine
Joe Rogan
Rogan warns that kratom is an opiate-like substance now widely sold in convenience and health-food stores.
“That's that weird fucking, it's kind of an opiate and it's everywhere”
Listen from 1:28:37 · Kratom
Joe Rogan
Rogan argues MMA has advanced so much that today's prospects would have been world champions in the sport's early years.
“you're seeing people now that are like on the Dana White contender series that would be absolute world champions in 1994”
Listen from 1:48:05 · Ultimate Fighting Championship
Joe Rogan
Rogan says he genuinely believed Justin Gaethje had a real chance because of his durability and experience.
“he's insanely durable he's extremely experienced in very high level competition against world-class fighters”
Listen from 1:56:23 · Ultimate Fighting Championship
Bill Thompson
Thompson says he supported Trump at first but grew critical when events became unpredictable.
“because i was for him in the beginning and then when everything started going tipsy topsy turvy”
Listen from 2:28:42
Joe Rogan
Rogan predicts the next Democratic nominee will likely be someone untainted in public perception rather than Gavin Newsom.
“I think it's probably going to be someone who's not tainted”
Listen from 2:30:59
Bill Thompson
Thompson says from his own research that bot networks are a huge, well-funded market that manipulates the public.
“people just don't understand how they're being manipulated by these things. It's enormous. It's an enormous market, billions”
Listen from 2:32:12 · Social bots and online propaganda
Joe Rogan
Rogan argues that bot-driven posting should be illegal and only real people should post.
“I think it should be illegal I think you should have to be a person post for yourself”
Listen from 2:33:41 · Social bots and online propaganda
Joe Rogan
Rogan predicts AI will eliminate many jobs and make the world unrecognizable within ten years at most.
“Maximum? Yeah, maximum. In 10 years the world's going to be unrecognizable. That's what I think”
Listen from 2:38:23 · Technological unemployment
Bill Thompson
Thompson predicts AI will cause large deflation, making products cheaper and raising quality of life.
“I think there will be a large deflationary effect where products are going to get cheaper and the quality of life will go up”
Listen from 2:40:22 · Artificial intelligence
Bill Thompson
Thompson says he sees no path to sentience for AI in its current form.
“I don't see a path to sentience with AI in its current form today”
Listen from 2:44:24 · Artificial intelligence

People

In the conversation

Joe RoganAmerican comedian and host of The Joe Rogan Experience
Bill ThompsonRetired U.S. Army chief warrant officer; founder and CEO of hunting-technology company Spartan Forge

Discussed

Elon MuskEntrepreneur behind X, xAI and SpaceX, discussed in AI competition
Cam HanesBow hunter and ultrarunner, Rogan's longtime hunting partner
Joel TurnerShooting coach known for closed-loop shot-process training
Carl JungSwiss psychiatrist whose idea that every dream figure is the dreamer shaped Lamott's reading of her Havana dream
Jordan PetersonCanadian psychologist and author
Stephen KingAmerican horror novelist and Chizmar's collaborator on the Gwendy books
John DanaherNew Zealand-born grappling coach
Gordon RyanBrazilian jiu-jitsu competitor cited as an elite grappler
Justin GaethjeAmerican mixed martial artist and Nurmagomedov's final opponent
Ilia TopuriaUFC lightweight champion
Grant FuhrNHL goaltender who admitted drug use during his career
Donald TrumpPresident of the United States whose conduct of the Iran war is the episode's main subject
Kamala HarrisFormer Vice President mentioned as a potential California endorser
Gavin NewsomGovernor of California, cited for his 2018 primary strategy
Terence McKennaAmerican ethnobotanist and psychedelics advocate cited on higher dimensions

Topics

From the publisher

Bill Thompson is a retired U.S. Army chief warrant officer and the founder and CEO of Spartan Forge, a company that develops AI-powered mapping and predictive tools for hunting.www.youtube.com/@spartanforgeaiwww.spartanforge.ai Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan. Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using https://dkng.co/rogan or through my promo code ROGAN. https://ketone.com/Rogan for 30% OFF, or find Ketone-IQ at Target nationwide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on October 22, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.

Categories: Wilderness·Technology·Philosophy